This invention relates generally to the field of digital asset management, and more particularly to a digital image management system having a unique method for managing images as a single image group.
Modern hospitals have implemented networks of various digital modalities such as a magnetic resonance (MR), computed tomography (CT), digital radiography, and ultrasound devices. These modalities, referred to as input imaging devices, produce vast numbers of diagnostic quality digital medical images. In order to more easily manage such images many hospitals are implementing a network of specialized equipment and components designed to support medical radiological imaging commonly referred to as a Picture Archiving and Communicating System (PACS). A PACS allows a radiologist to easily manage the large volume of digital medical images including archiving, retrieving and displaying the images. For example, when a patient is imaged by a medical modality a series of digital images, referred to as a xe2x80x9cstudyxe2x80x9d, is generated, captured and archived. A radiologists can easily retrieve the patient""s study, or any previous study, and display the study on a display station for viewing. Furthermore, the retrieved study can be forwarded to another radiologist, perhaps located at a remote hospital. By easing the burden of managing digital medical images, PACS are expected to improve patient care and the efficiency of the radiology department. Furthermore, by integrating PACS with a Hospitals Information Management System (HIS), patient information can be coupled with the study, thereby improving the efficiency of the hospital as a whole.
In order to facilitate archival and fast retrieval of medical images, a PACS typically incorporates a short-term storage device having a plurality of short-term storage media, such as a jukebox of rewritable optical disks, and a long-term storage device having a plurality of long-term storage media, such as a tape archiving device capable of managing a library of tapes. As new images are generated from the various medical modalities, the system stores the images on the short-term storage device using a xe2x80x9cbest-fitxe2x80x9d approach. In this manner, the system distributes the images across the plurality of short-term storage media in order to minimize wasted storage space. Thus, each image in a patient""s study may be stored on a different medium in order to most efficiently manage storage space. A central database maintains the location of each image. If a radiologist does not request a patient""s study for a period of time, the system automatically moves the corresponding images to the long-term storage device and updates the database. Again, the PACS distributes the images of the study across the long-term storage media within the long-term storage device to minimize wasted storage space. When, for example, a radiologist or a radiology technician (i.e., a user) requests a particular patient""s study, the system accesses the database to determine the current location of the patient""s images. If the desired images reside on long-term storage media within the long-term storage device, the PACS automatically retrieves the images and moves them to the short-term storage device. If some of the media is not currently within the long-term storage device, perhaps being physically moved to storage by a hospital personnel, the system requests the personnel to retrieve and insert all of the appropriate long-term storage media.
Although the best-fit archival scheme typically used by a PACS provides the benefits discussed above, it also has many shortcomings. For example, because the best-fit method distributes images across a plurality of media, it does not readily allow patient records to be physically archived to a shelf or an off-site storage facility. When a radiologist requests images for a particular patient, the hospital staff may have to physically retrieve several media from archive. Even if all the necessary long-term storage media is currently loaded into the long-term storage device, the device must independently initialize each long-term storage medium for access. Thus, in certain scenarios, the best-fit method can greatly increase archive retrieval time, thus compromising the efficiency of the archival system and increasing the cost thereof. For the reasons stated above, and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need for a digital image management system which reduces access time and which requires less intervention by hospital personnel.
As explained in detail below, the present invention is directed to a method and system that facilitates image archival with a unique method for grouping customer image and information. As applied to medical environments, the system creates a xe2x80x9cvirtual film jacketxe2x80x9d and manages medical images by modeling conventional hospital film archival procedures.
In one embodiment, the invention is a method for archiving a plurality of digital images associated with one of a plurality of customers. The method includes the step of selecting one of the customers and defining an image group to include all of the images associated with the selected customer. The image group is stored to a short-term storage device having a plurality of short-term storage media such that all of the images of the image group are maintained on a single short-term storage media. The customer image group is moved from the short-term storage device to a long-term storage device having a plurality of long-term storage media when the customer image group is not accessed by a user within a first predetermined period of time. In this manner, the long-term storage device stores the customer image group on a single long-term storage medium.
According one feature of the invention, a request is received from the user to store an input image associated with the selected customer and the database is accessed to read a location of the customer image group associated with the selected customer. Upon receiving the request, the customer image group associated with the selected customer is retrieved from the long-term storage device based on the location read from the database. Furthermore, the retrieved image group is moved to a single short-term storage medium within the short-term storage device. The input image is received from an input imaging device and stored on the short-term storage medium having the retrieved customer image group, thereby adding the received image to the retrieved customer image group.
According to another aspect of the invention, the image group is moved from the short-term storage device to a mid-term storage device when the image group is not accessed for a second predetermined period of time, wherein the mid-term storage device stores the image group on a single mid-term storage medium.
Another advantageous feature of the invention is that a user is automatically informed to physically retrieve a long-term storage medium from a storage facility when necessary and automatically informed to return the long-term storage medium to the storage facility when the image group is not accessed for a third predetermined period of time.
In one particularly beneficial embodiment, the customer is a patient and the input image is a medical diagnostic image produced by a medical modality. As such, the customer specific information includes at least one of the patient""s name, a physician""s name and a modality type for each image of the image group.
In another aspect, the invention is a digital information management system having an input imaging device for generating a plurality of images associated with one of a plurality of customers. The system further includes a short-term storage device, a long-term storage device, and a database maintaining an entry for each customer. A software system executes on a suitably configured computer and manages the plurality of images by selecting one of the customers, defining a customer image group to include all of the images associated with the selected customer, commanding a short-term storage device having a plurality of short-term storage media to store all of the images of the customer image group on a single short-term storage medium, and moving the customer image group from the short-term storage device to a long-term storage device having a plurality of long-term storage media when the customer image group is not accessed by a user within a first predetermined period of time. In this manner, the long-term storage device stores the images of the customer image group on a single long-term storage medium.
These and other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments of the invention.